PCT applications WO 96/16715, WO 96/16714 and WO 96/16713 disclose a method and a container for separating a component, such as fibrin 1, from blood, by centrifugation, whereby blood admixed an anticlotter is fed to a first annular chamber in a device, where the annular chamber is defined by a cylindrical outer wall and a cylindrical inner wall, both walls extending coaxially about a common axis, as well as by a top wall and a bottom wall. The top wall is formed by a piston body displaceable within the first chamber. This method involves a centrifugation of the device about the said common axis to substantially separate blood into a cell fraction and a plasma fraction followed by the resulting plasma fraction being transferred while influenced by the piston body to a second chamber defined by an outer cylindrical wall. The outer cylindrical wall extends coaxially with the said common axis, whereby a fraction with fibrin 1 is caused to be separated in the second chamber while a suitable enzyme is being added. The separation of fibrin 1 from the plasma fraction in the second chamber is carried out during continued centrifugation whereby said fibrin 1 is deposited on the cylindrical outer wall of said second chamber, whereafter the fluid fraction collected at the bottom of the second chamber is transferred while influenced by the piston body to the first chamber. The fraction with fibrin 1 deposited on the cylindrical wall in the second chamber is caused to be dissolved by addition of a solvent and by centrifugation, whereafter it is transferred to a receiving container placed within the piston rod by passing after addition of a binder to the enzyme through a filter removing said enzyme, whereby a fibrin-1-containing solution is provided. As the separation of the fraction containing fibrin 1 and the remaining plasma fraction are performed during a continued centrifugation in the device, the fraction containing fibrin 1 is so heavily influenced that said fibrin 1 is efficiently separated from the remaining plasma fraction.
European Application EP 654,699 discloses an apparatus for initiating such a centrifuging. This apparatus comprises a housing which is basically divided into three compartments, viz. an upper compartment, a central compartment, and a lower compartment. The container with the fluid to be separated is placed in the central compartment. It is placed on a rotatable turntable which is rotatably journalled on a journalling shaft, said shaft constituting an output shaft of a motor which is housed in the lower compartment. Accordingly, this motor constitutes a means for generating the high rotational speed at which the container is to be rotated about its central axis at a number of process steps. The latter process steps correspond to the separating process which the fluid is to be subjected to in order to be separated into the desired fluid components. The container is retained on the turntable by means of gripping means engaging openings shaped along the lower rim of the container. Two motors are arranged in the upper compartment. One of these two motors co-operates with a gripping means which is rotatably journalled and adapted to be vertically displaced so as to engage and co-operate with the piston rod of the container. The other motor is adapted to activate a bar, which in turn activates a receiving container provided inside the piston rod and in which the separated component is finally collected during the centrifugation. This centrifuge apparatus corresponds to the apparatus described in the introduction to the specification.